In the process of the Qing Dynasty entering the customs and unifying the Central Plains, the army of hundreds of thousands of eight banners played an extremely important role.
Beginning in 1645, in order to maintain its rule, the Qing court successively dispatched the Eight Banners troops to all parts of the country, such as Dushikou, Zhangjiakou , Shanhaiguan, Xifengkou, Gubeikou , Rehe , Miyun , Jiangning , Xi'an, Taiyuan, Dezhou, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Jingzhou , Kaifeng and other places. In addition, the Qing Dynasty stationed an army of Eight Banners in the capital to protect the security of the capital.
At that time, the capital had 9 gates, namely Zhengyangmen , Chongwenmen , Xuanwumen , Chaoyangmen, Xizhimen , Fuchengmen , Dongzhimen , Andingmen , Deshengmen . Nine city gates closely surround the capital, forming an inner city with an area of about 62 square kilometers. The core of the inner city is the Forbidden City where the emperor and his concubines lived, which is now called the Palace Museum.
In order to manage the 9 city gates, the Qing court set up the commander of the five battalions of the nine gate infantry patrols, referred to as the "Nine Gate Admiral", who was responsible for guarding and access control inside and outside the nine gates, as well as night patrol, firefighting, editing and checking Baojia, banning , arrest, jail break, etc.
There is no doubt that it is unrealistic to expect the thousands of Guards led by Admiral Jiumen to ensure the safety of the Forbidden City. It is necessary to set up an armed force in addition to the Praetorian Guard, as an effective supplement, and at the same time supervise the Praetorian Guard. Therefore, the Qing court drove all the Han residents in the inner city to live in the outer city. After the inner city was vacated, the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners were stationed inside and outside the 9 gates.
Specifically, the Eight Flags Army is distributed like this.
Two yellow flags are stationed in the north of : with yellow flags in and out of Andingmen, Zhengyellow flags in and out of Deshengmen.
Two white flags are stationed in the east: with white flag stationed inside and outside Chaoyangmen, white flag stationed inside and outside Dongzhimen.
Two red flags are stationed in West : inlaid red flag is stationed inside and outside Fuchengmen, and Zhenghongqi is stationed inside and outside Xizhimen.
The two blue flags are stationed in south : with blue flag stationed inside and outside Xuanwumen, Zhenglanqi stationed inside and outside Chongwenmen.
In order to facilitate management, the Qing court divided the Eight Banners troops stationed in the capital into a left wing and a right wing. From the perspective of sitting north to south, the inlaid yellow flag, the upright white flag, the inlaid white flag, and the upright blue flag are on the left, which is called the left wing; This has a lot to do with the formation habits of the Eight Banners troops when they march and fight.
Obviously, there is only Zhengyangmen located in the south, and there is no fixed station of the Eight Banners troops. What is the reason for this?
The reason is very simple: Zhengyangmen's status is too special, its role is too important, and it is impossible to permanently station the Eight Banners troops.
Zhengyangmen is also called "Qianmen", " Daqianmen ". In the early days of the Republic of China, British American Tobacco Company produced a cigarette "Daqianmen", which was as famous as " Laodao ", "Daying", "Hardman" and "Three Forts", and it was all the rage in Shanghai. Zhengyangmen has the highest status among the 9 city gates. It is the national gate of the Qing Dynasty and represents the "face" of the Qing court. Only the emperor's dragon chariot is qualified to enter and exit through Zhengyangmen. Every year, the emperor went to the Temple of Heaven to offer sacrifices and cultivated land through the Zhengyang Gate.
Zhengyang Gate is the most regulated, and the gate tower, Arrow Tower , Wengcheng are the tallest and majestic among the 9 gates.Even the Guandi Temple in Wengcheng is the largest Guandi Temple in Zhengyangmen.
Because of this, Zhengyangmen is protected by , Manchuria , and Mongolian . That is to say, whether it is an inlaid yellow flag or an upright yellow flag; whether it is an inlaid white flag or an upright white flag, they can all participate in the guardianship of Zhengyangmen. This eliminates the drawbacks arising from the fixed stationing of the Eight Banners troops.
As for Han Army Eight Banners , they are not qualified to guard Zhengyangmen. They are mainly responsible for the seven gates of the outer city: the Han army with the yellow flag is responsible for guarding the east gate , the Han army with the positive yellow flag is responsible for guarding the west gate, the Han army with the white flag is responsible for guarding the Guangqu gate , and the Han army with the red flag is responsible for guarding the Guang'anmen , the Han army of inlaid blue and inlaid white flags are responsible for guarding Zuo'anmen, the Han army of inlaid red flag is responsible for guarding You'anmen, and the Han army of Zhenglan flag is responsible for guarding Yongdingmen.
The system of the Eight Banners troops stationed at 9 gates lasted from the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the demise of the Qing Dynasty. There has been no major change in the past 300 years, but only a fine-tuning of in 1699.
1699, Kangxi Emperor ordered that, except for Zhengyangmen to keep the original system unchanged, the officials responsible for the gates of the other 8 gates were intermodulated. That is, the gatekeepers remain unchanged, and officials from other flags serve as city gate leaders, city gate officials, and general managers. The specific exchange is: the inlaid yellow flag is exchanged with the upright blue flag, the upright yellow flag with the inlaid blue flag, the upright white flag with the inlaid white flag, and the upright red flag with the inlaid red flag.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the inner city and outer city had a strict layout. The Eight Banners garrisoned in the inner city were not allowed to go out without authorization, and Han residents in the outer city were not allowed to enter the inner city without authorization. Until the Kangqian prosperous period , some people in the inner city were forced to make a living and moved out of the inner city; the Han residents who originally lived in the outer city also moved into the inner city. Since then, the system of the Eight Banners troops stationed at nine gates gradually lost its meaning.
